The use and applications of thin-films to close substance containing sample cups are well recognized. An example of such a sample cup is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,989, entitled APPARATUS FOR TRIMLESS SAMPLE CUP USED IN X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
When a sheet of thin film material is positioned over the open end of a cell body by means of the annular collar or sleeve, one or more portions of the thin film material extend beyond the collar. These excess portion(s) of the thin film may have a tendency to flare away from the sides of the cell body. As such, the excess thin film material must typically be trimmed from the sides of the cell body, in order that the sample cup may be conveniently handled.
Further, to ensure proper accommodation and precise positioning in sample cup holding instrumentation, extraneous thin-film surrounding the assembled sample cup must typically be meticulously trimmed very close to the sample cup cell body. Residual thin-film portions remaining attached to the sample cup may lead to sample cup misalignment in instrumentation. Alignment inaccuracies potentially affect the analytical accuracy of spectroscopy and analysis.
Heretofore, the conventional method of trimming excess thin-film has been with the use of scissors. This is a detailed, time-consuming procedure for an analyst, especially when one considers that thin films are inherently prone to static electrical charge build-up. The thin-film clippings are typically annoyingly troublesome—as they cling to virtually any nearby surface, including the thin-film remaining attached to the sample cup. This potentially alters the transmission effects of radiation though the thin film window, in turn adversely affecting the spectrochemical analysis. In instances that dictate a relatively large number of sample preparations and throughput, applying a scissors to trim the extraneous thin-film is not a practical approach.
In response to this need, a sample cup integrated with a mechanism for detaching thin-film portions near the sample cup cell is desired.